[drivingpairs] Re: Color and height and gaits of pair members in CD
- From: "Anne Councill" <accouncill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <drivingpairs@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 9 Dec 2002 16:59:15 -0500
I'll pipe in on some of this. As far as the matching goes color may only be a
small consideration in presentation. The test itself
only considers gaits, training and how well the horses move together. Your
possible pair seems to be not that dissimilar in color,
just not exactly matched. It's a minor detail, so go practice your dressage
and don't give it another thought.
As far as the height goes, there's often a trade off in agility and weight
pulling ability which is usually only a factor at
advanced, but any of the size variables can be mitigated by conditioning,
training and good hazard planning.
The gaits will be judged on their own merit and there are so many other factors
in a test that good training tends to triumph over
simply good movement alone. Also your dressage test is only one part of a cde.
There are many ways to compensate for one's
deficiencies or blow a brilliant move over the course of the event. :o)
Trot is the required gait for combined driving.
Anne
Anne Councill
Driving in Birch Hollow
Stewartstown, PA 17363
717 993 8956
Cell 717 880 3840
----- Original Message -----
From: <atascill@xxxxxxxx>
To: <drivingpairs@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, December 09, 2002 4:32 PM
Subject: [drivingpairs] Color and height and gaits of pair members in CD
> I'm sure this has been asked before (apologies if it has), but for combined
> driving, do the dressage judges really care (as in
noticeable score differences) about color when judging the pair, if it is
otherwise well matched in movement? I have a possible
future pair in mind (as the filly grows up, she's expected to be the same
height and similar build and movement at maturity), but
the mare is a black bay (black in winter, almost black in summer, just light
enough to see that she has black legs), and the filly
will darken to almost black, but thanks to liver chestnut, will have a not
quite black coat, and about 4 colors in her mane
(gwageous by herself). Next to each other, it will be obvious that they both
approximate black in very different ways :) ....
>
> Now for height. In ("up-top" :) ) eventing, we're looking for just about 16
> hands. That's what the jumps (and 10 meter circles)
are designed for. Too short, they can't stride right or get over. Too big,
they can't stride right, and make the turns. In
combined driving, you have pony and full size. Is there an optimal full size
horse size for the obstacles? If my future pair is a
matched 15 2.5 hands (cannon bones are so nice, aren't they?), I would assume
that we're quite fine for driving, and that the
dressage judges won't penalize them for not being as big (read scopey) as other
horses? Not that 1.5 inches is the end of the planet
by any means, but it got me to wondering in general ... After noticing how
wonderfully floaty the older (4 yr old) mare's movement
is, and how "fun" it is to ride (flat gaiters are definitely easier to ride
when you aren't actively collecting them), though seeing
how beautiful it is to watch, and remembering that she's a true throwback to her
> carriage pulling ancestors, with a legendary dressage sire and old mare
> line, she seems like a shoe-in for combined driving.
But then again, the Cleveland Bay Society doesn't like floaty movement, they
like flat, ground covering movement. And they were a
cart horse. What if the horse floats over the ground, covering a lot of
ground, but floating over it? What if the AHHA
(Holsteiners, the legendary carthorse, with Cleveland Bay/Yorkshire Carthorse
ancestors) gave her an 8 for this movement as a foal?
Please correct me now, before I buy her (just leasing now for a breeding), and
then waste time pairing her off with this
future-purchase baby :) ...
>
> Finally, gaits. Of course I'll assume that trotters are preferred for
> combined driving. Carriages are how the world got flooded
with trotters, when riding horses were traditionally gaiteds :). But does
anyone attempt to show gaiteds, and if you pair up a
trotter and a gaited, does the gaited trot to match? My gaited (pacer) 23 yr
old pulls a buggy quite nicely, just like she did a
sulky when she was young, but what happens when you pair one up with a trotter?
I have photographed this mare doing all 5 gaits,
including trot, so I know she's capable :). Other gaiteds pop on my radar from
time to time, and I'm very curious on the topic ....
>
> Whew! Okay, I'm done .... thanks!
> Anya
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________________________________________
> Sign Up for Juno Platinum Internet Access Today
> Only $9.95 per month!
> Visit www.juno.com
> _________________________________________________________
> To Unsubscribe, change to Digest or Vacation mode go to:
> http://www.drivingpairs.com/dpmem.html
> `````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
>
_________________________________________________________
To Unsubscribe, change to Digest or Vacation mode go to:
http://www.drivingpairs.com/dpmem.html
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Other related posts:
